As someone who listens to traditional forms of music from a number of different countries, it fascinates me that we're the only country who seem unable to separate an old song from a new one without a guide to tell us the difference. Is it some national characteristic that makes us want to apply taxonomies to our preferences? Is it the folk club network of the last 50 odd years that's applied academic definitions to the product it deals in? Why can't we trust the evidence of our own ears?